accelerate

In the News

Why Boys Are Behind in Reading at Every Age

Jan 30, 2026 New York Times

American students are struggling with reading — test scores are at new lows, and many students don’t even read whole books. But while average scores have declined for everyone, boys are doing much worse. On standardized tests, they score lower tha...

Male teacher looking at a book with a male student in a classroom

In the News

NC Ed Corps maintains strong literacy impact despite North Carolina budget setbacks

Dec 8, 2025 EdNC

North Carolina Education Corps (NCEC), a tutoring network and program, is continuing to demonstrate significant, research-backed impact for elementary students, even as statewide budget limitations force the organization to scale back operations for ...

Literacy tutor Lorie Jamison-Phillips works with fourth grade students at Tar River Elementary. Photo Courtesy of Amy Rhyne (Project PI Catherine Asher)

In the News

Bold Challenges Initiative awards almost $1 million in grants to promote startup research projects at UMich

Oct 3, 2025 Michigan Daily

On Sept. 2, the University of Michigan announced they would award nearly $1 million in Accelerate funding grants to ten University research groups as part of the Bold Challenges Initiative. Accelerate will provide consulting and seed funding of up to...

An illustration of gears with icons symbolizing academic subjects on them.

In the News

Accelerate Awards Grants to Boost Student Outcomes with Evidence-Based Tutoring and Technology in Classrooms Nationwide

Aug 29, 2025 PR Newswire

Accelerate today announced awardees for two complementary grant programs, the Call for Effective Technology (CET) and Evidence for Impact (EFI). Together, these investments build stronger evidence on tutoring and classroom technology while helping st...

Tutor and student in an online forum looking at math problems

Infographic

Impacts of a Virtual Tutoring Model to Support Elementary Math Skills

April 24, 2026

Youth Policy Lab explored the research question: What is the impact of access to Cignition's virtual small-group math tutoring on math achievement for upper elementary students?

Infographic

Recruitment, Training, & Support: Impacts of A District-Partnership Tutoring Model to Support Elementary Literacy Skills

December 26, 2025

Despite over 20 years of attention and resources to improve students' literacy skills, about half of nation's K-3 students are reading below grade level. High-impact tutoring is a proven way to accelerate learning, yet it remains difficult to impleme...

Report

Working Paper - Recruitment, Training, & Support: Impacts of A District-Partnership Tutoring Model to Support Elementary Literacy Skills

December 18, 2025

This study presents findings from a multi-site student-level stratified randomized evaluation of Ed Corps, a tutoring program that provides tutor recruitment and training as well as implementation support for high-impact tutoring. We find that relati...

decorative photo of a pupil reading at the desk

Tutoring Evaluations

July 2024

Catherine Asher, Lauren Shaw, Zaiyi Jiang, Chihiro Tanigawa

Funder: AccelerateYPL has partnered with Accelerate on three randomized controlled trials of small group tutoring programs with different populations. We are seeking to understand the impact of these tutoring programs on student achievement, the conditions required for successful implementation, and which students may benefit most from small-group tutoring. Ed Corps: From Fall 2024 - Spring 2025, YPL evaluated the effect of implementation support for in-person literacy tutoring for students reading below grade level in grades K-3.Cignition: In the same time period (Fall 2024 - Spring 2025), YP...

Student high fiving tutor as they study in the library